Rock Em Sock Em Juveniles at Hearn! All Flying Well!
June 24, 2012 - Toronto - Hearn Power Station
Tracy Simpson Reports:
For the past week, Bruce Massey has been holding the fort and running the watch at the Hearn Generating Station and I can’t say enough what a dedicated Fledge Watch volunteer he is. Today I was able to spell him off for an early night home and was treated to an exceptional evening of juvenile shenanigans. When we did the hand off, Bruce had reported that all three juveniles that he has affectionately named Tiny, Dolly and Dark Male, were flying high and well at the site and that Peter, the resident male, was providing for them very well. Upon his leaving, we had not seen the young for a few hours and I was anticipating some action!
Bruce spotted a young one, Tiny, on the eastern ledge of the plant roof and the other two were well hidden… …somewhere. As always happens, as soon as Bruce left and I was alone, the fun began. Tiny flew in from the eastern side of the plant with food and landed on the roof of the room on top of the short silos. This let me know immediately where the other two were as they lit up and rocked the neighborhood with their vocalizations!! How dare he be up there with food and not share!! I now could clearly see Dolly on the piping at the back of the short silos and Dark Male hiding in the maze of rails just below her. After eating his treat, Tiny flew off and landed on the highest “terrace” of the south face of the plant just as the rain moved in. All three juveniles enjoyed a serious rain bath today and not one of them moved to shelter. They really enjoyed the cool down. As soon as the rain stopped, Peter ( Dad ) flew in to check on the kids and got all three of them wound up. He flew up to the flashing light half way up the stack and several times Tiny attempted to fly up to join him to no avail and slid down the stack for several feet like it was a slide. Dad flew off at around 7:30 on what looked to be a serious hunt and Tiny continued to tease and taunt his siblings who had yet to move.
At 8pm, Peter returned with food and delivered it over to the top terrace on the plant to Tiny who immediately mugged him for it. It was quite the little tug of war with Tiny dug in and pulling for all he was worth. Feeling rather triumphant, he settled in to eat but no sooner had he gotten started when Dark Male flew over and showed little Tiny how it felt to have your dinner yanked out from under your beak!! Dark Male successfully removed the food from Tiny’s grasp. He mantled over the food and chowed down while Tiny stood a few feet away screaming to Dad that his sibling had taken his stuff!! By 8:15, Peter had returned again with another small package that he delivered directly to Tiny. Problem solved, you both have your own now. Not to be left out, Dolly flew over to the terrace to join them but was too late to cash in on the yum yums. She decided it was best to just sit there and scream until someone fed her and so for the next 20 minutes she did just that. With dusk approaching quickly, all three juveniles began flights around the south area of the plant and made multiple landings and take offs from various areas. While only Tiny had returned to the nest ledge itself, home is still home and two of the three young got as close as they possible could as darkness set in by landing on the roof just above the nest itself.
With all three of the young ones flying so well and Peter keeping up with the feeding, we feel very confident that the first stage of danger for the young ones learning to fly has ended. They are good strong fliers and so clumsy flutter flights are now things of the past. Over the next week, we will continue to watch as the young ones gain confidence and pick up more speed. This is a dangerous phase two of flight school as the young learn how to break, steer and judge distances accordingly. We will continue to watch and report as their training continues.